Extra Chumros During These Days

In Shulchan Aruch we find a very perplexing proposition laid before us for the Aseres Y’mei Teshuva: to take on extra stringencies and hidurim such as, keeping "pas Yisroel" for someone who isn’t careful about it the whole year. The interesting thing is that this is only intended to last the duration of these ten days. That being the case, what it the point? Are we trying to trick the Master of the World by quickly accruing merits to somehow bluff our way through these Days of Awe? It surely is intended as something more authentic.

The Rebbe, shlit"a, said that it is intended to give us a glimpse of who we really are, who we can become and that they are really the same. Things that we thought we didn’t have time for, davening longer, more time set aside for learning, etc. are now within our grasp. We find ourselves being “maavir al midosav” under circumstances that the rest of the year we give up and sell ourselves short by getting angry or saying something hurtful. Because we find ourselves being more scrupulous in our adherence to the fine points of halacha, because we find ourselves more enthused in performance of mitzvos, we see that we really could have been this way the whole year. All those things that we thought were out of reach and we couldn’t bring ourselves to push the extra little bit; now we see that we really are capable.

May we all come to realize our enormous potential in all areas of our lives and may we understand that we can live in a more full and self-realized way than we have been until now. The Ten Days of Repentance show us that.